A three-sectioned curtain hides half the stage from us. Over the course of the next two and a half hours, the two-level arena, with sections which can be curtained off, opened up, and turned into a small ring - becomes a Roman arena, a snowy wonderland, a Western plain, a sylvan fantasy.
A young pair of horses - a pinto and an Appaloosa, his short brush tail swishing, appear on the stage, exploring the stuffed toys, rocking horses, and other horse-related objects left on the stage. They pick them up, put them down, nose objects as they meander. Humans begin appearing to the accompaniment of a cello, and then a woman's voice. They pick up the objects and lead the horses off.
A horse, alone on the sand, is discovered by a woman behind the trees; the two play in a small pond before disappearing from sight.
Rain falls from above, while the image of a white horse trotting, walking and rearing is projected onto it from behind. When the image fades, Two horses, ridden by women in long, flowing dresses, dance with each other in the moonlight and rain.
Two women twist and spin as they wrap themselves in heavy ropes suspended from the ceiling. The clever ropework allows them to release themselves, go into free-fall - and stop, in yet another intricate knot, rather than crashing to the ground.
Four pairs of horses, with a human foot on each back, run the arena and jump the obstacles. Then one rider hands his reins off to another, and then another - and one woman is controlling six horses, all from the backs of the hindmost pair.
A man, starting carefully balanced on a flexible beam supported by two of his colleagues, performs amazing feats of balance, strength, and acrobatics.
Six - and then eight - white and grey horses are ridden in complicated patterns around the arena, performing side-passes in tandem, lining up and moving in circles together, and forming shifting shapes on the stage.
Trick riders tear across the tent, chasing each other to become the possessor of a white cloth. They hang off their horses sides, ride backwards, dangle by their feet over the horses' rumps as the animals gallop. The colorful animals - pinto, leopard-spot Appaloosa, bay, chestnut disappear from view.
Acrobats and tumblers bounce, spin, balance and twist as the heavy horses canter in patient circles. Other acrobats perform somersaults over the animals' backs, flipping from outside the circle to in, as the vaulters flatten against the horses at the exact right moment to prevent mid-air collisions.
Two - then three - then five - bay horses wander in a field. One rolls in the dirt enthusiastically. A woman appears, moving from one animal to the next, murmuring softly. Suddenly, we realize that the horses are no longer moving randomly, but instead are circling the woman. They speed up - slow down - stop. They move at a easy trot - then, she moves into the group, and they change direction. With little more than a gesture here, a soft word there, the animals line up across the arena, move in concentric circles, stop, turn around. Suddenly, one horse has changed direction, circling outside the others. A second joins him, then a third, then a fourth. The last horse, going in the original direction, is finally given permission to join his friends. They split up, wandering the stage once more, before she calls them and they run off stage together.
Two women, suspended by wires, dance in the air, using the momentum from briefly meeting with two men on horseback below them.
A powerful dark bay performs difficult dressage movements - piaffe, canter pirouette, flying lead changes, extended and collected trot, Spanish walk, side-passes and half-passes - in a complicated dance around the stage.
All too soon, fifteen horses and riders appear, dressed in the costumes from different parts of the show. The acrobats run from the center, and the performers spread out in a double line across the stage, taking their bows. We are left to leave this magical word behind and return to our daily lives.
http://www.cavalia.net/en/cavalia-show
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